Phil Collen

About

My Rating

:star: :star: :star: :star: :star:

What I Like

His style of playing

Philip Kenneth Collen was born December 8, 1957 in the Hackney area of London. Before he joined Def Leppard in 1982, he was in a London area band called Girl. Phil joined Def Leppard after original guitarist Pete Willis left the band near the end of the Pyromania sessions.

Phil was very active in the music scene long before he joined Def Leppard. He played in bands called Lucy, Dumb Blondes and Tush before he was in Girl. While in Girl, Phil's career really started to take off after the releases of Sheer Greed and Wasted Youth. A cousin of Phil's, David Pilley gave him his fist guitar and recalled that Phil would sit in his room for hours just playing the guitar.

When Collen got his first "real" guitar, a red Gibson SG, he actually began to teach himself how to play. Back then, Phil was heavily influenced by the alternate picking style of Al DiMeola and Phil's style really reflects this. It was recently revealed that Steve Harris had approached Phil about joining Iron Maiden but, Phil declined the offer for differences in musical tastes.

It was when Phil joined Def Leppard in 1982, that he met Steve Clark and began to carve out Def Leppard's signature brand of guitar harmony. Steve and Phil bonded very quickly and became almost inseparable. Both guitarists were capable of playing lead and rhythm guitar and switching roles several times during the same song.

Def Leppard- White Lightning (Official-unofficial) Music Video

Phil came onboard at the end of the Pyromania sessions and is still an active member of Def Leppard some 30+ years later. Steve and Phil worked so well together and would play off of each other's guitar parts because the way they played was exact polar opposite of each other. Steve was classically trained and as for Phil, he is a bit of a fly by the seat of your pants kinda player.

The two were such great friends that those in the band began calling them The Terror Twins. Steve and Phil were such a great team but, sadly not even a decade later, Steve passed away from complications caused by his addiction to alcohol.

Phil has his own signature model Jackson guitar with an 18v sustainiac driver with a built-in homonic overtone switch. Phil also uses EVH 4x12 cabinets on stage and in his rack system has been using a Kemper profiler. He also still uses his Marshall JMP1 preamp. He uses D'Addario string 13-56 gauge and stainless steel Dunlop picks.

*As always, the information contained in this favourite came from Wikipedia but I used my own phrases and language *